How do low income people survive? (license, collecting, employers, career)

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by wCat

There are a lot of good tips here, but you negate them all when you suggested "kiting checks". THAT would be illegal. It's fraud and stealing.....not to mention very risky if you can't cover that HOT check and end up paying a $30 NSF fee. Many budget outlets now only accept checks by using instant cash conversion processors because of this rampant problem.
If the money isn't in the bank, they know it before your transaction is complete. NOT A GOOD IDEA!

I wasn't suggesting anything.

The question was "how do low income people survive"... and I answered based on what I've lived along with what I've SEEN. It doesn't take long living in a low income area, talking to neighbors, to hear all kinds of things about what people will do to stretch a dollar or make things work out. I didn't say they were all good things, I was just listing "how low income people survive". Personally, I think that payday loans and the like are just as bad as the check thing, but again, I wasn't making suggestions, just stating facts.

[BrunetteBeauty]

Originally Posted by gardener34

"although my classes were $20 a unit" do you mean $20 per credit hour? Where do you go to college, I want to go there! Our local community college is $90 per credit hour and that is cheap for our state anyway. Or was this some years ago?

I go to schools in the San Diego Community College District. Yes, the courses are $20 per credit hour and that is a current tuition rate.

[Jackyfrost01]

When i was 20 and starting out I was indeed pulling 3 minimum wage jobs and still only ate one meal a day. All I could afford was my rent and a car payment.

Minimum wage is minimum for what really? I agree. It doesn't pay for anything.

I hate to say this, but if I wasn't married to someone with a good job, I'd probly be living in my car or with with one of my relatives right now. But we all make our choices in life and although I'm aware of my mistakes with money and job decisions and getting married to early, we just have to do the best we can from the results of those decisions.

Actually, I'd probly still be living in my little apartment in a seedy part of town where the rent was cheap, but us white folks couldn't go out after dark. And I'd be working some low paying job nearby.

[Jackyfrost01]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

Be a minimalist, no toys is the biggie. Wear cheap clothes, pay cheap rent, no car payment (drive a POS), no dating or movies or eating out. No smoking or drinking. Even live at home if possible. The bare essentials. I've lived like this. I was actually able to save money, enough to where money wasn't a concern or something to stress out about.

No car insurance? Is that an option? I bet people do that. Its an expensive gamble to have it, as well as an expensive gamble to risk getting caught without it.

But car ins is a huge exp when your poor and sometimes you dont have alot of choice when driving is rather a necessity, even though the law says its a privelidge, it is a necessity nowadays.

[sapphire]

Originally Posted by Jackyfrost01

No car insurance? Is that an option? I bet people do that. Its an expensive gamble to have it, as well as an expensive gamble to risk getting caught without it.

But car ins is a huge exp when your poor and sometimes you dont have alot of choice when driving is rather a necessity, even though the law says its a privelidge, it is a necessity nowadays.

Do not even get me started on this. Car insurance is optional--if you plan on NOT DRIVING!!! People who think it's OK to tool around town without it just *&^%$* me off so bad I can't see straight. And they're usually smoking a damn cigarette while they're pulling out of the Mickey D's drive thru. No matter how tight times have been, that is the one bill I have always had "auto-deducted" from my account. ALWAYS. Since I was 17 years old, and I'm 44 next week.

Please, if you can't pay your insurance bill you have absolutely no business on the road with the rest of us responsible people. Thank God Texas is FINALLY getting fed up with these losers and towing their cars on the spot. Grrrrrrrrr I can not emphasize how mad this makes me.

Take a damn bus while you save up your money to get back on the road.

[Jackyfrost01]

Hehe, hit a soft spot did I?

I have insurance, btw. I was just asking about that. See how many people admit they've gone without for a month or two to save money.

Originally Posted by sapphire

Do not even get me started on this. Car insurance is optional--if you plan on NOT DRIVING!!! People who think it's OK to tool around town without it just *&^%$* me off so bad I can't see straight. And they're usually smoking a damn cigarette while they're pulling out of the Mickey D's drive thru. No matter how tight times have been, that is the one bill I have always had "auto-deducted" from my account. ALWAYS. Since I was 17 years old, and I'm 44 next week.

Please, if you can't pay your insurance bill you have absolutely no business on the road with the rest of us responsible people. Thank God Texas is FINALLY getting fed up with these losers and towing their cars on the spot. Grrrrrrrrr I can not emphasize how mad this makes me.

Take a damn bus while you save up your money to get back on the road.

[sapphire]

Soft spot? No. Sore spot? You betcha. Who's going to admit to it? Hell, they lie to the cops, why would they tell the truth on here?

[Jackyfrost01]

Originally Posted by sapphire

Soft spot? No. Sore spot? You betcha. Who's going to admit to it? Hell, they lie to the cops, why would they tell the truth on here?

Thats easy, cuz a cop is in your face and can do something to you then and there.

Online, what's gonna happen beyond someone typing at you? Its safe here and is why people online are so very different than they are in real life. They feel free and safe to express themselves as nothing can really happen to them on a computer.

Even if they do admit to something on here, they could be just saying that to get a rise out of people in here. Reporting someone on here for having no car ins would be a huge undertaking, I'd think only to find out they were just yanking your chain. Car ins is not required unless your operating a vehicle. Admitting to it on here would not be incriminating, however driving without it is. As such no one online could report them or catch them in the act, cuz thats something that happens while they are in the car.

Its not like you'll know them if you see them in real life, so where's the fear in saying things on the net?

Thats why.

[sapphire]

Thanks.

Yes, I've seen where some people admit to things, and they get dog-piled--just based on the absurdity of the sum of all things. Doesn't seem to bother them, though. Life goes on, and when you're used to behaving in a certain way, why change?

But if I have a "close encounter" with my bumper and yours, and you don't have insurance, I can not be held responsible for my actions. Hey, you don't want to be responsible, I don't have to be either.

[Jackyfrost01]

Exactly. I'd never take that risk. I need my car too badly and sure can't afford to get another one right now, let alone pay for yours

Originally Posted by sapphire

Thanks.

Yes, I've seen where some people admit to things, and they get dog-piled--just based on the absurdity of the sum of all things. Doesn't seem to bother them, though. Life goes on, and when you're used to behaving in a certain way, why change?

But if I have a "close encounter" with my bumper and yours, and you don't have insurance, I can not be held responsible for my actions. Hey, you don't want to be responsible, I don't have to be either.